Thermal accumulation in metal micro-parts fabricated by micro droplet deposition manufacturing technique

Thermal accumulation in micro droplet deposition manufacturing (MDDM) has a significant influence on geometric profile and microstructure of the fabricated metal micro-parts. In this paper, thermal behavior of a new aluminum droplet on the deposit surface was investigated using one-dimensional heat transfer model. Then several thin-walled aluminum cubic pipes were fabricated by MDDM to verify the numerical analysis result. The result shows that the thermal accumulation would increase gradually with the increase of the deposit height. It associated with thermal input and output on the top surface of the deposit, which could be controlled or eliminated by optimizing processing parameters such as deposition frequency.